This invention relates generally to the field of compact disks (CDs) and digital versatile disks (DVDs), and more specifically, relates to generating a program to edit data on the disks for customizing viewing and/or listening based on content.
Compact disks (CDs) and digital versatile disks (DVDs) are information storage devices used for storing audio, video, and/or other multimedia information in digital format which may include movies, music, literary works such as books, encyclopedias, computer software, etc. The same laser technology is used to store and playback the digital information in both CDs and DVDs. Briefly, both DVDs and CDs store information as a pattern of pits formed in a metallic substrate. The pit patterns form digital words and can be read by shining a laser beam on the disk surface and detecting the reflected beam. The reflected beam is detected by an optoelectronic receiver which decodes the beam and converts the beam to the corresponding audio or video output. DVD players have many of the same features as CD player, such as the ability to play selections in any order desired and the ability to read information from any point on the disk.
The information storage capacity of a DVD is much higher than a CD; presently available DVDs have a variety of capacities and may be up to seventeen gigabytes depending upon the technology used to manufacture the disks. This high information storage capacity makes DVDs suitable for storing not only audio information but also video information and large amounts of computer data. DVDs, moreover, can store information in different formats.
An industry standard for coding audio-visual information in a digital compressed format on the disks was developed and is continually being updated by the Moving Picture Experts Group and carries the name MPEG. In addition, a DVD may also store uncompressed linear pulse code modulated data streams which have sample rates between 48-90 kilohertz and are sampled at 16 or 24 bits. Still other CD and/or DVD versions can store digital data, which may or may not be compressed, for computer use.
There are existing disk players and computer programs which allow a user to program specific songs or movies from a disk to play or exclude. One such method is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 6,011,760 entitled xe2x80x9cMethod for Skipping and/or Playing Tracks on a CD or a DVD.xe2x80x9d These methods, however, rely on preexisting formatting of tracks, e.g., on a CD one track exists for each song rather than on the actual information content.
There is thus a need in the industry for a method to allow a user to program the playback of a disk based on the information content of the material without regard to preexisting formatting. The industry is lacking a technique to allow a user to skip certain scenes in a DVD movie, or skip the dialog but retain the visual images in certain scenes or edit the playback of certain lyrics of musical performances. The industry, moreover, not only fails to provide such a mechanism; it does not allow programming of the playback based on the information content to be accomplished in real time.
These needs and others that will become apparent to one skilled in the art are satisfied by a method to create a playback program for a disk, comprising the steps of: selecting a region of the disk based on content, the region being independent of tracks defined during the recording of the content onto the disk; ascribing at least one playback attribute to the selected region; and saving the region and the at least one ascribed playback attribute in a semiconductor memory. The method may further comprise selecting another region and ascribing another playback attribute to that other region.
The step of selecting the region may determine a starting boundary and a stopping boundary of each of the regions. The method of the invention may further comprise modifying the output of the content in the regions between the boundaries according to the playback attribute during playback of the disk. The method may also allocate a start-up mode to indicate whether to playback the disk or to skip to the first region at the beginning of the playback program.
The content may be a stream of video data wherein the start-up mode causes the playback program to advance to the first region and modify the video output in accordance with the playback attribute of the region. Alternatively, the start-up mode may cause the playback program to play from the beginning of the disk and modify the video output in the regions in accordance with the playback attribute of the region.
The content may be a stream of audio data wherein the start-up mode causes the playback program to advance to the first region and modify the audio output in accordance with the playback attribute of the region. Alternatively, the start-up mode may cause the playback program to play from the beginning of the disk and modify the audio output in the regions in accordance with the playback attribute of the regions.
The method further includes modifying the output of the content of the regions between the stopping boundary of one region and the starting boundary of another region according to the playback attribute during playback of the disk.
A password may be assigned to access the playback program.
The invention may be also understood as a method to create a playback program for a disk, comprising the steps of: selecting a plurality of regions of the disk based on content, the regions being independent of tracks defined during the recording of the content onto the disk; determining a starting boundary and a stopping boundary of each of the regions; ascribing one or more playback attributes to each of the selected regions; saving the regions and the ascribed playback attributes for each region in a semiconductor memory; modifying the output of the content of the regions between the starting boundary and the stopping boundary according to the playback attribute during playback of the disk; assigning a password to access the playback program; allocating a first start-up mode to advance to the first region; allocating a second start-up mode to playback the disk from the beginning of the disk; allocating a third start-up mode requiring the password to access the playback program. In the first start-up mode, the playback program advances to the first region and modifies the output of the disk in the regions in accordance with the playback attribute of the region. In the second start-up mode, the playback program plays from the beginning of the disk and modifies the output of the disk in the regions in accordance with the playback attribute of the regions. In the third start-up mode, the disk is played back unmodified from the beginning if the password is verified. The method may further comprise detecting when a scene change occurs in video output of the disk and marking the scene change as a boundary of the region.
The invention is also an apparatus to create a playback program to modify the output of a disk, comprising: a microprocessor; a semiconductor memory connected to the microprocessor; a disk identifier to read the disk and assign an identify to the playback program corresponding to the disk; a content reader to read the content of the disk; a region creator to create regions independent of any manufactured tracks of the disk based on the content of the region; an attribute assigner to assign an attribute to modify the output of the content of the disk in each region; and a pointer to point to the next region, if any. The apparatus of the invention may further comprise a password requester requiring a password before the playback program can be accessed. The apparatus may be a personal computer, or a microprocessor-based disk player.
The invention may further be considered a program product for use with a disk player connected to a microprocessor and a semiconductor memory for creating and/or executing a playback program, the program product comprising a signal-bearing medium carrying thereon: a program assigner to provide an identification to the playback program corresponding to a particular disk; a region creator to create regions based on the content of the region independent of any manufactured tracks of the disk; an attribute assigner to assign an attribute to modify the output of the content of the disk in each region; and a pointer to point to the next region, if any.
Yet, the invention may also be considered an apparatus to create a playback program to modify the output of a disk, comprising: a means to view and/or listen to the content of the disk; a means to create/read regions corresponding to the content of the disk independent of prerecorded tracks on the disk; and a means to assign a modification attribute to modify the output of the disk in the regions.